EPA's Combined Heat and Power Partnership (CHPP) provides information, tools and technical assistance to energy users who are considering implementing combined heat and power (CHP) projects. For additional assistance, during a preliminary phone call, the Partnership can help:

Identify opportunities for cost-effective CHP

Assess goals, drivers, and potential barriers for a project

Direct energy users to existing tools and resources

Determine next steps for project technical assistance

If there is a compelling technical and business case for CHP at the site, a goal of the call will be to identify the information necessary to advance to the next stage of project development. This may include quantifying the technical and economic potential at a site, estimating the environmental impacts and providing letters of support for beneficial projects, or providing information on a variety of technical or policy issues that will be important when considering, planning, or building your CHP system. The CHPP may supply no-cost technical assistance for qualified single or multiple sites in some of the following ways:

Spark Spread Screening for CHP Candidate Sites

Based on minimal site information, the CHPP team can provide your organization with a preliminary spark spread screening of CHP economic viability for a single or multiple end-use sites. The screening includes assumptions about typical CHP system performance characteristics, fuel prices, and credit for displaced thermal energy to estimate the operating cost of onsite power generation at each site. The difference between the cost of purchased power and the cost to produce power on site indicates whether CHP will provide energy savings. For multiple-site screenings, an overlay of the utility policy environment in each state will be added to the spark spread analysis in order to rank the best candidates for CHP.

Level 1 Feasibility Analysis

If a site is determined to have a good economic and technical potential for CHP, the CHPP team can conduct a Level 1 Feasibility Analysis to help Partners determine how compelling the opportunity is.

The CHPP team evaluates several CHP technologies or system options and develops budgetary pricing and economic analyses for each option to determine a simple payback timeframe. In addition, we can conduct sensitivity analyses to help quantify the benefits of available grants or incentives, the additional costs and benefits associated with using the CHP system to provide backup power in utility outages, or the impacts of future utility rate increases or decreases.

Third-Party Review of Feasibility/Design Analyses

The CHPP team can provide third-party reviews of CHP system feasibility and/or design analyses. A review will include an evaluation of critical assumptions, approaches to CHP equipment selection and sizing, as well as project economics.

Technology/Vendor List

The Partnership team can furnish your company with a list of technology suppliers and project developers with relevant expertise in the CHP technology you are considering. The list is not a vendor recommendation but will merely identify suppliers and vendors with experience in similar installations, noting which businesses are CHP Partners.

Incentive/Policy Analysis

The Partnership team can provide a review of specific national and state incentives and policies that could impact a prospective CHP installation at a given location. The policy analysis will identify national and state incentives that might apply to the installation. The review also outlines critical policies or regulations that could impact the economic viability of the project.

Energy and Emissions Savings Calculations

The CHP Partnership team has developed the CHP Emissions Calculator. The CHP Emissions Calculator is a tool that calculates the difference between the anticipated carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxide (NOx), and carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions from a CHP system to those of a separate heat and power system. The Partnership team is available to help a candidate or operating site run the tool and will send a letter to the site owner outlining the results, upon request.